Communion and Conversion

Mother Martha Driscoll, OCSO, abbess of our sister community in Gedono, Indonesia, spent a week with us and gave conferences on communion and conversion in monastic life.

During her time with us, Mother Martha shared both in words and by her warm and nurturing presence a vision of Christian and monastic life as a new humanism, rooted in the gospel call to love all people as Christ loves them. Learning to love is our mission, and our witness to a world confused and broken in so many ways. And since we too are confused and broken, selfish and proud, poor sinners just like everyone else, our struggle toward conversion is our gift to the world and all people. Learning to live with these particular sisters in communion of heart and mind, in truth and love is a particular incarnation of universal love.

Crucial to this spirituality of communion is the ability to speak the truth in love, to face the reality of myself and other people in difficult and painful situations and relationships. We need one another as we journey toward God. Each of us needs to be known and loved, and so we need to speak the truth to one another. It is also important to humanize all our daily activities by remembering that we do them for love of God and all people and this particular person, even when our feelings do not cooperate. Love is not essentially a matter of feelings but of the choice to meet every person as the unique image of God that she is, created for free and loving union with God and with all things that are.